WAS STK: 1994 Mitsubishi Mighty Max

Worth The Risk

There are many of us in the minitruckin' community who sit in the garage, dreaming of what our truck could one day become. Of course, the ultimate goal is to be picked as a cover truck, being asked to roll it into the photo studio, and then seeing it there on the newsstand in your hometown—that is the dream. But what if I told you there is a dark side to building a cover truck? A type of bad voodoo, ill-fated fortune, a straight-up curse?

We call it the "cover truck curse," and while I don't have any solid numbers to back up my claim, you have my word that it's as real as the Madden NFL curse. Grace the cover, and you take the chance of being doomed. Electrical fires, devastating wrecks, police impounding, and floods—the options in which the curse decides to ram you are endless. How did Ernie Macias' Mitsubishi Mighty Max succumb to the curse? We'll get to that in a bit, but first let's focus on the positive side of this story.

If you know nothing about Ernie, then know this: He is a vehicle fanatic who specializes in Mitsus and Caddys. He has boxes of rare parts (dash clocks, center consoles, clear taillights) hoarded away in his garage for future builds because after owning 50+ vehicles, he's figured out what it's like to search for the hard parts. And no, that wasn't a typo. He's seriously owned over 50 vehicles in his 30-something years on this planet.

Like many of his previous vehicles, the truck was purchased with a cheap price tag but with a smart head. Most of the body panels were straight, the motor was solid, and everything else would be left in the capable hands of Steve Wilk of Wilk Worx. As Ernie puts it, "He went above and beyond what was originally planned for the Mitsu," reworking the suspension to lay on bigger wheels. In an odd twist of fate, Raceline didn't send the 20-inch billet wheels that they had promised, instead they sent a larger set of 22-inch billets and just like you or I would do, Ernie and Steve gave each other the "not bad" face and bolted the wheels on.

The truck debuted at SEMA a few months later, and before ever hitting its first minitruck show, it was rear-ended. It was hit so hard that the bed folded into itself like an accordion. In just moments, a twist of fate twisted Ernie's third cover truck. This terrible twist of fate is a prime example of what has become known as the cover truck curse. Nobody is safe from its wrath.